Padraig McCrory recieves big fight offer within a week of big Collins victory
Padraig McCrory [9(4)-0] has been rewarded for his high profile stoppage victory over Steve Collins Jr with a ‘big fight’ offer.
Just over a week after the Belfast super middleweight won the BUI Celtic title live on ESPN+ and BT Sport, he has been presented with another chance to progress his career significantly.
The popular puncher didn’t reveal the specific details of the offer when speaking to Irish-Boxing.com, but confirmed there is an exciting one there.
Having the tasted some time in the spotlight it’s a fight that is tempting the Ray Ginley-trained fighter, but he does have some timing concerns.
“I always want to be centre stage. I love the limelight,” McCrory told Irish-Boxing.com before revealing a big fight could be in the pipeline.
“I’ve been offered a big fight already. I’m having a good think about it as I’ve recently started a new job and baby number two is due very soon. So I’m not sure I’ll be in the place to jump straight into another big one.”
Whether he takes it or not remains to be seen, but the offer comes on the back of the biggest victory of ‘The Hammer’s’ career.
McCrory was the victor in the latest Dublin-Belfast derby and defeated a much improved Steve Collins Jr on one of the biggest stages possible.
That combining of the Feile platform and a derby fight made it all the more special a win for the St James’s local.
“It was a massive event and it was the biggest fight of my career. The response I’ve got has been fantastic. I felt like the whole of Belfast was behind me. I will never forget that.”
Not only did McCrory secure the win, he did so in late dramatic fashion. A big right hand in the eighth and final round allowed him to go for the kill and take out the Dub.
There were those ringside who argued the home fighter needed the stoppage, but it turns out he was ahead on two cards and down on one going into the final round.
The fighter himself admits he felt he needed a big finale to make sure.
“We knew the fight was close, but we felt we were ahead but needed the last to be sure of the win,” he adds before revealing he was surprised by the level of Collins’ performance.
“I didn’t expect the fight to be so close. He was a lot harder to hit than expected and his work rate was higher than usual. He put up a good fight but I was always confident.”
The Irish Knockout of the Year winner for 2018 had gone the distance in his last two fights, but reconfirmed he had power with that big right hand. The fact it came late on, against a fighter with a noted chin and in his first every trip to the eighth round has given him confidence and suggests he carries an equalizer throughout fights.
“It’s nice to know I can pull a shot like that out of the bag. As the rounds went on I started finding a home for the right hand, when that one landed I knew I could get him out if there.”
